PCSO gets 20% discount from pharma firms

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) is set to help more needy patients this year as pharmaceutical companies reduced the prices of their medicine by 20 percent for the benefit of the less privileged.

PCSO chair Margarita Juico said covered by the price reduction are medicine commonly needed for chemotherapy, dialysis, and other ethical drugs.

Juico said medicine requested for patients living outside Metro Manila can now be delivered to PCSO branches nearest the patient’s residence.

The price reduction was the offshoot of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by the PCSO last Jan. 15 with pharmaceutical manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors.

Among these companies are Zuellig Pharma Inc., Metro Drug, and GB Distributors Inc.

Zuellig and Metro Drug are major distributors of foreign drug firms Roche, Novartis, and Sanofi that supply specialty medicine and maintenance medications.

Last year, a similar MOA was signed with two of the country’s biggest local drug manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, United Laboratories and Globo Asiatico Enterprises Inc.

Juico also underscored the need to get the most revenues possible so that the PCSO can respond to the growing number of requests from needy patients. 

The PCSO charity fund is raised through online lottery games. 

The said fund finances medical assistance programs covering medicine, hospitalization, diagnostics, and other medical procedures.